Scent of green papaya stirs creative urge

Michael Malone. Special to the TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

One of the advantages of living in a culturally diverse city is the food from around the globe. So when the summer air gets hot and sticky we can look to tropical cultures for refreshing ideas, like the green papaya salad.

On its own, green (or, more accurately, unripe) papaya is light and cool on a hot summer day. The crisp white to pale green flesh is subtle but alluring. A wonderful alternative to a typical salad, it is perfect with grilled or barbecued food and a nice foil to spicy dishes. As with any other neutral flavor, the ways to express yourself with it are endless.

Native to Central America, the papaya quickly spread to every tropical region where it would grow. The tree matures quickly, bearing a crop within a year. The fruit is eaten green or ripe, and in much of Southeast Asia, where it was particularly embraced, the flowers, leaves, mature seeds and even young stems are cooked and eaten as well.

But don't get your hopes up for papaya stems yet. While the ripe fruit is what is best known here, available at most supermarkets and hardly exotic, it is when papaya is green that I find it more interesting as well as more challenging to find. Of course the easiest place to find green papaya is in Southeast Asian restaurants.

As Charmaine Solomon observes in The Encyclopedia of Asian Food, "In Thailand it is so popular that there are food stalls devoted just to this one salad." And nearly every Thai restaurant has an offering. Vietnamese restaurants, such as the venerable Pasteur, serve excellent versions as well.

And chef Jennifer Aranas of Rambutan in Wicker Park is perfectly at home with the green papaya. Her Filipino cuisine is already a mingling of Asian and Latin influence, both of which use the unripe fruit.

A green aroma

"I love the smell of green papaya," she says with passion. "It smells like a Southeast Asian green, like the Philippines, which is completely different from, say, grass green or apple green. The scent is tropical, but not in that mild, light, splashy way; more in a heavy, earthy, woody way." Jungle green.

And the scent is as subtle as the taste. As Aranas continues, "the flavor is so mild and unassuming. It takes on the flavors of anything that you pair it with."

Some people might say that it doesn't taste like anything. And although the flavor is elusive, much like cabbage in coleslaw or lettuce in a salad, "Asian food is half texture," chef Kevin Shikami says.

Mention green papaya to Shikami, and in minutes you'll have more palate-rattling possibilities than you can take in: Papaya rising out of Japanese hand rolls. Papaya with mango. Paired with lobster reductions. Dressed in a grape-seed oil vinaigrette. Combinations of flavors and textures that would tickle any taste buds.

So Shikami will certainly be using green papaya somehow in his namesake restaurant Kevin, opening early this fall in River North.

Bringing it home

The most difficult part of using green papaya at home comes in finding one.

In the city, any Asian and many Latin markets will have them. The Thai Grocery, 5014 N. Broadway, or the Vietnamese markets in that same Argyle Street neighborhood carry them. They range from 6 to 12 inches and have smooth green skin with white, immature seeds in the center. After peeling, you can slice it or shred it.

Many cookbooks suggest bruising the papaya after slicing. "It softens it up a little," Shikami says. "A lot of times, in Asian cooking, like with cucumbers, they'll smash it a little. It releases the juices and breaks the cell walls a bit."

A mandolin is perfect for slicing papaya, and you can certainly cut it up with a knife, but the large holes on a box grater work fine too. Long, patient sweeps produce a tiny shredded mountain of this wonderfully textured, clean-tasting fruit that keeps incredibly well covered in the refrigerator.

Green papaya also can be cooked. "Filipinos use it quite often in dishes: soups, salads, stewed with other meats," Aranas says. "It's also very common as a pickled condiment."

Both chefs like to pair it with the similarly subtle jicama and the tang of ginger. Shikami finds it has a particular affinity to basil, cilantro and mint.

A good source of vitamins C and A, green papaya is rich in phytonutrients and enzymes, including the protein-digesting enzyme papain, a digestive aid also used to tenderize meat. As the papaya ripens, its papain diminishes.

After considering every possible angle and use, Aranas goes back to beginning: "I eat it plain," she says, dressed with maybe a little lime juice, salt and pepper. "That's all you really need."

Green papaya salad with almond-pear vinaigrette

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Yield: 8 servings

Adapted from a recipe by Jennifer Aranas of Rambutan restaurant.

Dressing:

1/4 cup each: pear juice, vegetable oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 small clove garlic

1/4 pear, peeled, seeded

1/4 teaspoon each: chopped ginger root, almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad:

6 oil-packed dried tomatoes, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted, see note

1 green papaya, shredded

1/4 jicama, peeled, shredded

Salt, freshly ground pepper

1 bunch watercress, thick stems removed

1. For dressing, place pear juice, oil, vinegar, garlic, pear, ginger root, almond extract and salt to taste in blender; mix on high until smooth. Set aside.